toyota gr yaris

Is Toyota's factory-built, rally-bred GR Yaris hot hatch not manic enough for you? Try this for size: a GR Yaris fettled by Japanese tuner HKS, pushing some sports car-slaying performance figures. Under the bonnet, HKS has retained the standard car's 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine, which in Toyota-tuned factory guise develops a respectable 200kW of power and 370Nm of torque.

In our era of turbocharging and electrification, it can seem almost weekly that a new, immensely powerful, absurdly expensive hypercar or super-sedan makes its debut. The Bugatti Bolide, SSC Tuatara, Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series and heavyweight GMC Hummer EV encompass some of the more recent additions to the high-horsepower club. But what if you’re after big power without a big price tag to match? Let’s count down the 10 cars currently on sale in Australia with the ‘cheapest’ kilowatts.

There’s little question the 2020 Toyota GR Yaris is serious about cementing itself as a dedicated hot-hatch challenger, but does Toyota have even better things up its sleeve? This latest development prototype, spotted testing at the Nurburgring, suggests a flagship GRMN Yaris may be on the way. Within Toyota’s performance division there’s GR Sport models, largely devoted to handling and appearance but not performance upgrades, then the powerful GR hero models, like the GR Yaris and GR Supra.